Window on the Wood: A Novel of Brazil

My story begins with a group of southern emigres going to Brazil just after the Civil War. They have been promised cheap cotton land by Dom Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil. Many go because they believe they can resurrect their old lives in the south with cotton, slaves, and "dignity." The Oliver family goes to Brazil. Stanley, the father, who has lost his arm in the War, tries to re-start his medical practice in Rio. Victoria Stanley,the main character of the book, does not want to go at first.Gradually, she warms to the experience of Brazil however, Dom Pedro has become extremely controversial: he offers free land to displaced southerners, and then he starts an emancipation program. He gets Henry Hilliard (in the novel Hilbertson), from Alabama, to write his Emancipation Proclamation! Having an Alabaman write an Emancipation Proclamation is not the only twist and turn, and changed lives in this novel about Brazil, "The Land of Tomorrow!"